IMO, it wasn't the non-smokers who demanded the change. I think all of us knew non-smokers when we were smokers and could smoke everywhere, and in my recollection, they didn't hate on smoking. They would've probably preferred not to be around as much smoke, but didn't really care that much. I realize there are probably exceptions to what I'm saying, but my main point here is that I think it really was more of the recovering smoke addict and zealous types (like actual nazis) that changed things the other way and carried the torch for anti-smoking, and anti-public use.
When I went cold turkey, I ran into so many people who really thought I was offended by what they were up to. I had stopped drinking at the same time, so it wasn't just smokers, but almost all users thought of me as someone that was likely offended by what they were doing and thought I would be super annoyed to be around it. I wasn't. Perhaps a teeny tiny bit at times, but for the most part, not really at all. And yet, I've seen enough recovering types that think the whole world ought to change now that they are changing, and who have bought into notion that what they were doing was wrong, harmful to them, and likely harmful to all others around them. The mindset of, "if I'm no longer going to smoke in that restaurant, and am committed to not smoking, then so should everyone else."
This is partially why ex-vapers scare me more than any possible thing ANTZ could dream up. Cause ex-vapers will know acutely what all the pros are, but will possibly be of mindset that argues that the harms/bad stuff outweigh all possible perceived benefits and pros, and then act accordingly in their political outlook.
I'm just coming from thread on DA/AP overhyped concern (my position) and yet, that is primary example of how whatever the film is about, it likely ain't touching on that type of thing. I say to the vaping community be prepared for a lot more DA/AP type scares, and yet know that all of us have seen similar things on more than one occasion thus far in the history of vaping culture. I fully expect one of those types of things every year for as long as vaping is around. The THR type crowd needs smoking to position vaping as "better alternative" which undoubtedly will work, but to not see the limits of that is one thing. It's also the crowd that strikes me as completely (as in entirely) hung up on the medical model for vaping rather than recognizing it as mostly as a recreational choice among legal adults. I'm thinking the film, based on title mostly, but also on trailer I've seen, is mostly hung up on this medical model approach.
Non-vapers couldn't care less about that. I think some will see the film, know a smoker, and wish the smoker would make the switch. But that will be the end for them of where they are concerned. Us, who have delved into the politics of it all, are way more immersed in the primary themes and sub-arguments than all other people in the world, other than ANTZ (who have zero clue on pros) and ex-vapers.
Anyway, I could easily go on for another 8 paragraphs in this post, but I won't. I think non-vapers are likely to give ANTZ credence cause they don't know differently, but also think non-vapers are likely mostly understanding vaping right now as a recreational choice that like most recreational items has pros for its users and one of those seems to be lessening how much people are addicted to smoking. If the film is successful in terms of how many people see it, it'll be because lots of non-vapers saw it and liked the message. But if it is only stuck in the medical model approach, then I think it will possibly be confusing. It'll essentially say that part of what ANTZ has been up to has been dead on correct (i.e. smoking kills) and that another part of what ANTZ is now up to (trying to stop vaping from becoming a viable alternative) doesn't make sense to them, other than to throw in the 'big players' (i.e. BP).
I'm still just amazed though that if vaping has saved any lives since its inception, and vapers at any point have been vaping diketones since its inception, then either vaping community is lying to itself about "lives saved" or vaping culture is confused, and very prone to the zealous claims of the fear mongering crowd. And if the latter is the case, and a ex-vaper emerges that wants everyone to be liberated from the evil clutches of vaping, as they are then, stand back vaping community. You are about to get knocked down like the bowling pin you were set up to be.
Yeah, I'm an "ex-user" of all kinds of things -- the major reason I quit using drugs was because I was tired of the low-life losers I had to hang around while using them, so I wouldn't want to be around that type of people now that I don't use them. Drinking, pft, I couldn't care less about; it's not going to force itself down my throat -- when my son was living at home as an adult, it didn't bother me one iota that he kept beer in the fridge -- he didn't seem to show any alcoholic tendencies at all, and he bought it himself, so big deal, I really didn't care. If I could have EVER drank the way that he does -- one beer and usually not even finish it -- I'd never have had a problem with it in the first place!
Smoking, hmm... I really don't care for the smell of cigarette smoke anymore, and I wouldn't voluntarily go around smokers if I had the choice, BUT, if I was in someone's home and they were an indoor smoker, I don't think I'd make a big deal about it; I might treat it much as I used to act about indoor cats, before I started taking Zyrtec so I could have a cat of my own, but rather than blaming allergy, blame my asthma, and just kindly leave, without making a big issue of it. When I smell it in parking lots, I mention to my husband how foul I find the smell nowadays, but not so loudly that the smokers would be likely to hear me; I remember being a desperately addicted smoker for many years, and hey, it's outdoors, to which smoking has been banished. But as I'm walking out the door of a store, I generally take a big hit on my vape, to screen myself from the smoke which is right outside; by the time I exhale, I'm past it. And a few times, some of those smokers have stopped and questioned me about it, and at least one of them, I'm pretty sure he headed straight to a vape store, so he was probably as ready to be done with smoking as I was.
I've been sick for a while with what seems to be the flu, and I've been trying to take it a little easier on vaping, because of it, and I'm extremely surprised to find that not only is that possible with vaping, it's not even really difficult. Given my addictive nature, this really does come as a huge surprise, but a welcome one; I no longer simply assume that I will vape forever, indefinitely, but that given my asthma, which will never go away, I know now that at some point, I very likely may give up vaping too. I don't know when that will happen, it might be years -- I want to make sure that my cigarette addiction is very firmly in the past, before considering it -- but it gives me hope that eventually I may not need to vape, just to stay smoke-free, and thus my asthma might improve tremendously. But I suspect that even when I choose to stop vaping, I will remain very firmly a vape advocate, simply because it offers hopelessly-addicted smokers (such as I was) a relatively easy means of quitting and staying quit, without all the suffering and psychosis.
The diketone thing... It really does seem to me that some vapers are as much control-freaks as the ANTZ; they want to MAKE SURE that NO ONE EVER vapes any diketones, despite there being no firm evidence that diketones represent a real threat to vapers. For me, with my asthma (and because AFAIK, I've never vaped any ejuice with diketones so I'm not really "missing" anything), I choose to abstain from them, but it doesn't follow AT ALL that everyone must do as I do -- that would be like my insisting that everyone must stop drinking, just because I'm an alcoholic.
So many people nowadays seem to be completely incapable of making their own judgments and decisions, sticking to them, and not insisting that everyone else make the same judgments and decisions. But I've never been either a leader or a follower; I'm perfectly capable of weighing things for myself, reaching a conclusion, and putting it into practice -- and it doesn't bother me one bit if no one else decides the same -- their life is not my problem; mine is. I think it would be called autonomy -- and people seem to have totally lost the ability to exercise it. They all want to be part of some herd or other. I'll be the Fool on the Hill.
Andria
